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41. What is financial eligibility?
You must be financially eligible to get SNAP benefits. That means your countable gross income must be within the program limits for your family size. After certain allowable deductions, a portion of your countable net income is compared to the maximum SNAP allotment for your household. Your monthly benefits are determined based on subtracting a portion of your net countable income (30%) from the maximum monthly allotment. Since June 2008, there is no asset test for most Massachusetts households.
The financial eligibility rules are confusing. The goal is to determine how much money your household has for food compared with how much the federal government feels you should be spending to eat. SNAP benefits are designed to make up the difference between your “net income” and what you need to buy food. It’s important to understand these rules if you need to advocate for yourself or help others get nutrition benefits.
The basic math, after you meet the SNAP program financial tests, calculates the amount of your monthly benefits by subtracting 30% of your net countable income—after allowable deductions—from the maximum SNAP benefit amount for your household size. The following questions walk you though the financial rules step-by-step.
Financial Calculation Tools:
- Project Bread’s SNAP calculator walks you through a series of SNAP questions to determine whether you are likely to qualify for benefits, available at Project Bread's website.
- A different type of calculator using an Excel spreadsheet is available at the Massachusetts Legal Services website. This spreadsheet is useful for quick calculations, and quick adjustments on income/expenses if you already know the basic eligibility rules.
- For a simple one-page SNAP Worksheet, go to Appendix A: SNAP/Food Stamps Worksheet.
These tools may be helpful but they do not address many eligibility issues so it is still important for advocates to know the rules!